Thomas J. West Music

I have a rather unusual instrumentation for my wind students this year. I have four flutes, four clarinets, eight alto saxophones, two tenor saxophones, one trumpet, and two percussion. What in the world can you do with that?

The answer: arrange a jazz standard with rhythm section.

We're performing my arrangement of Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon ...

Image: Wikimedia Commons

In that great divide between academic music ...

This image is making the rounds among my music education friends on Facebook right now. It is well-timed, as Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett (R) is planning to announce more devastating cuts to public education without considering sources of income such as taxing smokeless tobacco and t...

There's nothing truly innovative about this video, but it is another great example of what happens when high musical and kinesthetic aptitude is paired with the 10,000 hour principle. Julian Wass was 13 when this performance before the Queen of England at The Queen's Jubilee occurred in 2010. He is accompanied by 23-year-old Ashley Wass, an equally accomplished pianist.

What is important to note here is that this is high-caliber performing that is not of Eastern descent. So ...

One of the topics that I have pondered the most as a professional music educator is the role of music-making in our modern culture. As a young man in college charting my future, I had an epiphany during a bowl trip with the Penn State Marching Blue Band that this, indeed, this marching and concert band thing, was what I wanted to do. But how does one do that ...

In this new age of transparency thanks to the Internet, regimes in the middle east have crumbled, skeletons are coming out of closets, and many situations that were "don't ask, don't tell" in the recent past are no longer socially acceptable. The more public your life and your work are, the more of a responsibility ...

The following article is a guest post.

I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that there are lots of kids out there who want to learn guitar because they want to play like [insert guitar god here]. The bad news is that there are lots of kids out there who want to learn guitar because they want to play like [insert guitar god here].

This presents ...

This particular performance is not of the caliber I normally include in the Great Performances series, but the novelty of how it is being performed is worth observing. Walk Off The Earth is an Ontario-based independent contemporary band that specializes in inventive covers of popular songs and their own originals, This particular cover of "Somebody I Used to Know" by Goyte was shared with me on Google Plus. All five members of the band play one acoustic guitar, each taking a piece of the comp...

I have been offering live private music lessons via webcam since 2008. Over that course of time, the online environment has changed dramatically thanks to social media advances. Despite these trends, my student roster continues to be sporadic and modest in size. I had attributed that primarily to the notion that online lessons had ...

The following article is a guest post from Elaine Hirsch, who has contributed to TJWmusic.com on several previous occasions.

New software and the rise of the Internet have made it easier than ever for artists to earn money with their music while gaining an audience and improving their sound. There are many online tools now available to music...